I enjoyed this but also... I struggled with the racist/transphobic/fatphobic character descriptions. The story is set decades in the future with some intriguingly huge global landmarks and norms shifted. And Tawada writes each character sympathetically, even lovingly, but I struggled with some of her descriptive choices. Those felt like deliberate provocation on the author's part.

So I'm left unsure. I did put another book of hers (The Emissary) on hold at the library, because I really enjoyed the writing (except for these glaring issues.) I'm curious whether its an authorial problem, or whether these were choices unique to this story.